This was how it went down:

Last year, I finally published a short story I wrote. It's titled, "The Man Himself: Diary Of A Hero."

It's about a boy who gained super powers and started out as a hero who wanted to fight crime in the city.

But slowly, he lost faith in humanity and instead of simply capturing criminals, he started killing them. He gradually lost his own humanity as he started indulging in the city's vice like sleeping with prostitutes and drinking excessively.

Yeah the story is my take on breaking superhero-type movies/stories and their conventions while also exploring the corruption of a kid's innocence.

(From danluvisiart.com. Venom is the closest inspiration to my superhero. I love anti-heroes who dare to go beyond and punish their victims instead of always doing the 'right' thing.)

Anyway, a good friend of mine liked the story.

He showed it to his friends who worked in a local production house.

They liked it.

They pitched it to potential investors.

The investors liked it. They asked us to do up another treatment of the story.

When my good friend told me the news, I was psyched as fuck! I was basically at the halfway-point of getting a blog post I wrote turned into an actual movie!

My friend helped me with the treatment. We had very similar ideas in terms of creativity. We worked well together.

We sent in Version A to the production house.

They told us that we had to tweak it further.

My friend and I worked on it again and sent in Version B.

They told us that they would take over treatment entirely, citing creative differences.

I was totally cool with it. In all honesty, I just wanted to make it work and get it to be accepted by investors, no matter.

The lead writer, who would have been the director of the movie too wrote up an entirely different story and sent it in to investors.

It was not accepted. I remember receiving a text in the morning by one of them, "Hi Alden, the story was not accepted. Please let us know if you have other leads."

That was that.

The Man Himself: Diary Of Hero has been merely sitting on my blog as a story for everybody till today. That's cool of course. It's my baby and I am really proud of the story.

Lessons and takeaway-

I am not sore about the whole thing. I feel like I've no regrets because I did what I thought was right then.

But sometimes, the more I think about it, the more baffled I feel about the experience.

1) Just. Don't. Give. In. And. Don't. Sell. Out.

I've to say that I did.

As mentioned, I simply wanted to get the story to hit production stage. I was really excited throughout the experience and I didn't want that feeling to end.

I sold out when I simply allowed the production team, nay their sole writer take over.

I didn't even fucking blink my eyes or give it a second thought when they suggested that they take over. I was like, "Yeah sure! Go ahead! Let's just do what it takes!"

But that's the thing about life: When you sell out to chase the results, there's actually a lower chance for you to actually attain it.

I strongly believe in that today.

When you sell out, you become less authentic. You literally lose yourself and your work/content will suffer from it.

People can tell. People can always tell when they're looking at something insincere.

I will never give in again. 

If you truly want to be remarkable, go all out your own way, break through the fear and start believing in yourself. Do it your way and take pride in that.

2) Don't play safe

That said, I was playing safe. I just wanted it to work.

But that's the thing about playing safe. Everyone is doing it today.

If you play safe, you can forget about standing out.

If you don't stand out, you can forget about succeeding.

3) Use your smarts and common sense. Don't be blinded by the results

In hindsight, I wonder why I did what I did that time.

The final treatment of the story that was sent in to investors was something entirely different.

No, it was not merely tweaked or changed a little.

I am talking an apple being changed into a durian.

Or a lion being changed into a hippo.

As said, I just agreed to it. That was really dumb of me. I gave in because I felt they had more experience in the industry and hence knew what investors wanted.

Well, at least that was what they told me.

It was highly dumb of me considering the investors liked the initial idea which was literally my blog post, yet the final pitch was of something different entirely.

Creative differences and art subjectivity honestly makes nobody better. Even if you lack experience or don't belong in the industry, stand strong and take pride in your work. It's your baby anyway and you know best. 

4) You may be just one person, but you matter too, if not the most

The folly was mine for thinking that I lacked experience and therefore allowed them to take hold of the reins.

I should have fought for what I believed in.

Even if you're literally just one person, you still matter.

You're the embodiment of powerful ideas and your own unique experiences. No one else in the world has that. 

So what if it's two, three or five of them against you?

A handful of people with shitty ideas can never beat one single, brilliant person with a fantastic one.

5) Industrial standards be damned, just be remarkable your own way

"Oh you've a style that only suits novels Alden."

That was told to me when I handed it in my first treatment of the story.

Again, I caved in. I concluded that I lacked experience and didn't what it takes as compared to people who were working in the industry.

But honestly? Fuck that.

If succeeding is as simple as abiding to standards and following the crowd, then everybody would be already successful with their own masterpieces.

Most today are not successful. They're merely surviving and they feel validated because of a steady paycheck.

You want to succeed? Go all out, break the rules, be controversial and stray away from the normal shit people do.

Normal just ain't good enough, okay?

So yep! That's my story

I ain't giving up. The experience was a cool one albeit short-lived.

I've learn the lessons. And now I am taking it further.

Others probably won't understand it, but that really doesn't matter anymore.

Just because others don't understand it doesn't make them right.

Do it your own way. Be remarkable.

Peace,

Alden

P.S. A couple of books I'd like to recommend on the idea of standing out to be remarkable are:

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Unlabel: Selling you without selling out by Marc Ecko

These are the only two business books which stay true to itself and stand out with unique advice and stories.

Read them if you want to be learn how to remarkable. If you want cliched, typical business advice, then read any other book out there.

P.P.S. If you're a super cool artist who would like to work with me on fleshing out drawings for my stories, hit me up on Steemit chat!